What mistake did I make here :S

Capodecina

Joined:
May 26, 2009

I recently RMA'd a PSU which I believed was faulty, after it had been installed and the system powered on it immediately blew up two hard drives. Hooking up a PSU tester to the cable the SATA plugs were on revealed no PG reading and the 12v light failed to illuminate (worked fine with the cable the Molex plugs were on). So I figured that was the issue, it simply had never been tested when it came off the assembly line and the 12v overvolted and blew the drives (at least one of the SATA plugs was burnt too).

Got an email today stating the following:

Dear [my name],

The product CA-02U-KK on RMA326747 has been returned to you, this will be sent on a new order with order number 5173215.

Here is the technicians Test Report:

"PG reading on Dr. Power coming in at 300. "

Click to expand...

So now I'm super confused, how can it blow up £100+ of HDDs at my end and show PSU errors when tested but pass the RMA tests fine :S

Any idea as I'm a bit confused as to how I messed this up, I thought for sure I was right.

Mobster

Joined:
Feb 12, 2009

I assume that kind of vague text means they are sending back the original PSU and not replacing it.

It may have been a dodgy plugs rather than the actual PSU, as they got burned I would guess they didn't test them.

The PG reading is just the signal the PSU send down one of the 24 pin mobo cables. It's a very basic safety feature for starting up a PSU. Just because it passes this doesn't mean the PSU is working correctly.
You effectively asking as the PSU to test itself with that reading.

The other readings on the Dr power would be more interesting, but if the PSU isn't under load when testing it's not going to be a 100% accurate test. I'm guessing a basic device like the Dr power won't put any real load on the PSU.

So in short(excuse the pun :< ) a cheap PSU tester isn't an infallible test. I guess OCUK did they test rather than sending it off to the manufacture who would expect have more professional testing equipment.

Though £50 for a 850 W PSU, just says it all imo, I don't need to open it up.

Man of Honour

Joined:
Jul 12, 2005

The mistake you made was buying a crap psu. Seriously, it's rubbish. Look at the label when you get it back (or enlarge the picture on the store page) and you will see that the so called Kolink Core series 850w only has 672w on the 12v rail and I doubt if it would even manage that. In addition Kolink states on the label that maximum continous usage is not to exceed 700w!! That says everything you need to know about the components inside it. It's probably only a small step up from a generic psu.

Capodecina

Joined:
May 26, 2009

Obviously I wasn't expecting a Superflower, but for a product built in the EU by a sister company of OCUK I kinda figured it wouldn't blow up components like some cheap Chinese junk lol, being told they can't find anything wrong with it (after being sent pictures of the drives it destroyed, the damage to itself, and it failing a PSU test) is just insult to injury.

Mobster

Joined:
Jun 6, 2008

When lot more higher priced PSUs (Seasonics etc) are produced still in China it's guaranteed genuine China Export garbage from start to finish.
I doubt there's even single component (say FETs from Infineon) in it made by European company.

Maybe if it had one zero less in power sticker then it could be made in EU.

Capodecina

Joined:
May 26, 2009

Well, returned PSU arrived back today, surprise surprise it's still broken (as to be expected as they couldn't find the problem), PSU tester still showing errors, still visible damage to the SATA port one of the HDDs it killed was connected to. Obviously the guy testing it either couldn't be bothered to test all of the cables or just didn't test it at all.

What exactly should I do from here? Videotape it blowing up drives and post it on their Facebook page? :S

Obviously I'm quite unhappy about this, I'm down the price of the PSU, the value of the HDDs and the price of the return postage. In retrospect I should have gone for the 600w EVGA one that was the same price but I figured a PSU made by an EU company tied to OCUK with a good rep would be better than this >.>

Capodecina

Joined:
May 26, 2009

Wise Guy

Joined:
Jun 19, 2009

The 2 most important things in a computer are PSU and environment (case, cooling and dust filtering) as the stability and reliability are dependent on these two things. Any good computer starts with a good PSU and case/cooling.

Capodecina

Joined:
Jan 18, 2008

Soldato

Joined:
Oct 19, 2002

Learn lesson,buy from elsewhere
Must say that I have always had good customer service
But if you have issues you can always take your money elsewhere.lots of retailers online just as good it would seem

Soldato

Joined:
Aug 26, 2013

I'd update him on what has happened and give him the opportunity to do right by their customer.

If your experience is the norm and not some guy having a bad day, it would shed some light on why it has been said Kolink has the lowest failure rate of PSUs (they simply return it and claim it's working?).

Hope you get sorted out. And always avoid RMA'ing through manufacturer unless you have plenty of trust with them (the likes of Corsair, EVGA to name a couple). Because your rights are with the retailer. You are fortunate in a way that they have sent back the exact same unit you bought from the retailer, because now you can insist (if necessary) on the retailer refunding or repairing the product you bought from them. Look up the Consumer Rights Act (2015) in effect today.

Soldato

Joined:
Aug 17, 2009

If you specified an issue for them to look at instead of telling them generically that you had hardware damage and pointing vaguely at the burnt sata cable it's possible you set yourself up for them to quickly check the specific thing you said and nothing else.

e.g. ubersonic says no PG signal, tech looks for PG signal, finds one, back in the box it goes.